I'm Doing This For Them

Another Sorceress

Alison slept through the entire rest of that night and the subsequent day and she did not wake up until nearly 20 hours after her head had hit her pillow. On the bright side, though, she woke up without a hangover, having slept right through it by mistake, and now she was free to spend the whole next night with JPG. Alison found herself feeling far more relaxed with JPG than the spider-women and she knew then that, as fondly as she regarded Kira and Haruko, JPG would be the only one able to make her feel this safe and happy now. Her days of card games with the spider-women were over. She even made sure to tell the two as much. It had saddened, and even hurt, the spider-women to hear Alison ending their relationship on such a formal and, in their eyes, sudden, note, but there was little they could do to stop the vampire princess. Instead, they only took Alison's request in stride and promised that even if they were no longer to be good or close friends, they would still remain on good terms.

"At the very least, will you promise not to entirely forget us?" Kira had requested in response to Alison telling her and Haruko that there would be no more endless nights spent drinking, talking, laughing and playing.

"Only if you promise you bear me no ill will for my decisions," Alison had replied with a sad smile.

"Of course not," Kira nodded and Haruko echoed Kira's response. "As long as you will remember us, we will remember you," the pair vowed, and that was where the three friends departed.

"But if you ever are up for another card game, you know where to find us!" Haruko added and Alison nodded back with a slightly happier smile.

From then on, although Alison did stop in to chat with the spider-women every now and then, most of her time remained with JPG. And that was how it carried on for a good time longer. At least until yet another guest made her arrival into the mansion. But this time, she didn't come from anywhere that Alison or JPG had ever heard of. Instead, she came from a dimension entirely her own.

It all began upon a night when Cedric had made some special new technology and he, in his excitement, had not only decided to stay up all night working on it, but he demanded that JPG do the same. As employees of the Sorceress, they had no need to keep a tight schedule. They could sleep as long as they pleased so long as they could prove that they were still making progress in a security system for the mansion. The only reason Cedric retained his early bedtime was due to how easily he tired, but he knew he could afford all-nighters whenever he wanted. Now was one of those nights, and JPG was going to help him. He had commanded it of her.

"This is a revolutionary new invention!" he had cried. "I already know you stay up late cavorting with the other guests, so it's not like my request for your help is unreasonable! Besides, you are my employee first. You are under obligation to stay and help me! You can go party later, or some other night. One night will not kill you!"

"Yes sir," JPG had replied with a frown on her face. Her boss could be a real jerk! Then the old man turned to Alison, who was only down there because she had come to see JPG, under the assumption that they would've been able to spend some time together that night. Apparently not.

"I am afraid that I am going to have to ask you to leave, Ms. Alison," he told her curtly, eyes narrowed.

"As you wish," Alison gave him a very tight-lipped smile in response, even curtseying just a little, before excusing herself from the lab quickly. It was not due to any fear or nervousness on her part, though Cedric seemed to think so because he watched her leave with a grim satisfaction upon his aged face, but rather, it was Alison's way of trying to keep her composure. She'd only directly interacted with Cedric a few times before, but none of them were ever fun and it always took at least a little bit of her self-control to not get mad whenever he treated her so rudely.